Hello to everyone here! First of all: sorry for my English. I'm moving to another place and I'll have to use a different computer for a while. My library is on a external hard drive and I wonder if is it possible to import it on this machine, without the need of scanning the unit from scratch. Actually I need to have the possibility to share the same library (and the same account) on two different PCs so that I can use both. Plex in not installed yed on the machine I will use (or maybe it has an old, not updated version) I've read this guide, but I don't know if it allow to use two computers as well or if I need to do other steps when I switch from one machine to the other: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201370363-move-an-install-to-another-system/ Any help will be appreciated
Hello to everyone here! First of all: sorry for my English. I’m moving to another place and I’ll have to use a different computer for a while. My library is on a external hard drive and I wonder if is it possible to import it on this machine, without the need of scanning the unit from scratch. Actually I need to have the possibility to share the same library (and the same account) on two different PCs so that I can use both. Plex in not installed yed on the machine I will use (or maybe it has an old, not updated version) I’ve read this guide, but I don’t know if it allow to use two computers as well or if I need to do other steps when I switch from one machine to the other: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201370363-move-an-install-to-another-system/ Any help will be appreciated
It depends on the type of computer you are moving from one server to another. If both are the same type (Windows to Windows, Mac to Mac, or Linux to Linux), then it’s quite possible to do this, but it’s an involved process. If you absolutely must avoid rescanning the media on a new server, then refer to the link in that support article you already sent us. If this is a temporary situation, and you will be returning to the original server computer in a short while, then it might be better to just rescan the media on the drive on the new computer until you get the old one again.
Plex stores all the information about what media it knows about in a large database made up of (tens of?) thousands of files. Moving these files can take several hours. Moving them without doing damage requires carefully following the instructions, and possibly a fair amount of knowledge/experience about the operating system you are moving from/to.
But yes, you are able to have both servers on your account at the same time. If you copy the database files from one to the other, leaving both running, that will be fine (strange, but fine. Rename one of them at least).
Thank you for your reply.
I understand what you mean.
The only thing that I would like to avoid is to re-do the association of the medias (movies) with their actual titles. I mean, after scanning, 2/3 of the entire library doesn’t have the right image to display (and the other infos) and I need to associate them manually.
It takes a lot of time with a big library. I don’t know if this thing of not having automatic associations could be a matter of filenames… I mostly use a template name like this: “title-in-italian (original title) [year]”. But I should check them as well to avoid wrong associations for similar titles, for isntance…
Thanks for your time!
PS I can’t have both server running together since I’ll be in another city. And I’ll swith to the first computer only during vacations and other small periods of time…
I would consider using a program like TeamViewer to access the server in the location you have now. Just leave everything in place. You can remotely control the computer you have at home from anywhere
If you set up remote access you can just leave the server where it is and watch whatever you want on a remote stream or download videos on the computer where you are using any standard Plex app that supports downloads
This is what I did
On the server computer “connected by ethernet” I enabled Wake On Lan. I can turn on my computer hosting my Plex server from anywhere using my phone, tablet or laptop.
Installed Teamviewer to access the computer and Plex server remotely from anywhere using a laptop, phone or tablet. I can transfer files, add or delete items from the Plex server or make any changes to the computer I want including turn the computer off
There’s no duplicating a server, rescanning or possibly mismatching files or libraries
This may not be an option for you depending on your exact circumstances,
But if you’re just planning on using this for vacations or small times away from home it might be something worth thinking about
Ah, if it’s for “months” out of a year, then we have a problem. It sounds like you want to keep the library database between two remote locations synced. So that when you relocate to a new house (shutting down the old house), you want the media to all be the same in both places.
For something like that, I’d suggest that you take your “server” with you to both locations. If you install the server onto a small enough device, this can be a viable option. The biggest option would be a NAS, like Synology, QNAP, or WD Cloud, that can run a Plex server on them as well as hosting the movies. These boxes vary in sizes, but can be small enough to transport in a carry-on bag on airplanes. Smaller options:
An Nvidia Shield, with the media on an external drive. This device can be a Plex server, but I haven’t tried it myself. If your clients are decent players and the media is in the right form, you might not have to worry about transcoding much.
Really tiny: Raspberry Pi server. Similar to the Shield, this (TINY) box most certainly won’t transcode media, but if your media is just right, this isn’t important.
Other options: Don’t do a Plex server. If you aren’t relying on the transcoding, or you play on a single TV all the time, you might consider using KODI, which is a simple video player. Plex is more-or-less based upon Kodi, so the basic library management idea is the same, but it’s stored locally on the player itself. Kodi installed on a Shield, or other mobile TV-settop box, can play almost any media known to man, and it can be transported easily.
Plex is really designed around a single server that stays in one place, but can serve the media up anywhere in the world (with internet). Unless you want to move the server machine itself from place to place, it’s not really that easy to “copy” a server to another computer and then back multiple times. It CAN be done, but after one or two times, I’d start looking at alternates.
